Michael Brecker - Thanks From Jazz Players Everywhere

Sad day for the jazz world.  Michael Brecker passed away yesterday after battling leukemia for more than a year.  Jazz has lost another great one - arguably the most influential saxophonist of the last 25 years. 

I've had many conversations over the years with tenor players especially and they all seemed to pretty much agree that Michael took tenor playing to a whole new world - the technique, the sound, harmonic sense, everything pretty much.   And now I hear that Michael didn't even pick up the tenor until he was 16 years old!  He was a clarinet player when he caught a Coltrane in concert around 1965.  He was so inspired by Coltrane that he decided to make the tenor saxophone his life's work (thankfully!).  The rest is history.  It was like Coltrane passed the torch two years later when he died.  Talk about God-given talent...geez.
 
The last time I heard Michael live was at the IAJE held in Chicago a few years back.  It was a quartet, Michael, Joey DeFrancesco - keyboards, Jeff Watts - drums, and Marc Johnson - Bass.  I remember sitting there absolutely blown away by these guys.  Any one tune had more energy than an entire evening of any normal jazz quartet.  It was totally inspiring.

Michael made alot of great records, but my favorites were when he was a sideman - specifically with Chick Corea (Three Quartets) and Mel Lewis (Mel Lewis and Friends). 

Remember when albums used to have all kinds of stuff on them? Liner notes, even transcribed solos.  The Mel Lewis record had one of Michael's solos, a blues, completely transcribed on the inside of the record jacket.  It was very cool to watch it go by as he played.  I miss the old LPs in that way. Anyway, I digress.  Here is a video of Michael playing Oleo.  Thanks for sharing your talent with the rest of us Michael.  You will be sorely missed.